Terri Sligar Google Certified Educator!

Congratulations to Terri Sligar at Mount Baker Middle School for completing the Google Certified Educator Level 1 course and mastering the assessment to earn her Google Certified Educator Level 1 Certification!  This course and assessment do a great job of highlighting the pedagogy and not just the tools.  The course takes time, thought and reflection to complete, but in the end, you have increased your skills in using the tools available to help your students create, collaborate, communicate and think critically. You also get a cool and coveted  badge to place in your email signature and people even write blog posts about you.  :)


Mount Vernon teachers can earn clock hours for completing this course and passing the test through our Cloud Academy Courses.  The cost of the exam is $10 and is administered online  by Google.

The course is self guided, but I am considering developing a cohort of teachers next year who are interested in working together to earn their certification.  If you are a Mount Vernon teacher and think that you might be interested, please let me know.


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Disrupting Education: Holly Clark

I had the opportunity to attend the NCCE Google Summit in Seattle this last week.  Holly Clark an inspiring educator who works with the EdTech Team gave the Keynote speech titled, Disrupt Education.  At this point in the conference, the wireless was pretty sketchy, so my notes are a little hard to understand.  But I was able to jot down several of the key statements and ideas that she shared.


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I Can See Clearly Now: Tools for Visual Learning

I did a fun, low key workshop just looking at some ideas for using visual tools to promote and share learning. Holly Clark talks about the importance of being "transliterate". We need to be able to read and speak all different types of informational media including images. I tried to focus more on the pedagogy and ideas and not just share a lot of resources. As Kevin Honeycutt says, it is not about the tools, it is about the possibilities. In all of my sessions, I tried to make sure that I included opportunities to create, collaborate, communicate and think critically. This is my new mantra. This needs to be a part of everything I teach.

  Here are the resources

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Great Google Gear for Teacher Workflow

I did a workshop at NCCE this last week on Google tools for Teacher workflow. I knew going in that I had really bitten off more than I could chew trying to share all of this in a 2 hour workshop. You really need time to work through each of these tools and practice how it would work with your workflow. The workshop might have been a bit of a brain blower, but if you take just one step at a time and take advantage of the resources shared, there are some really great tools here for you to explore the possibilities for how they might help you out in your classroom.


   

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Chrome is the New Black

I had the opportunity to present a session at the NCCE Google Summit this last week. I definitely feel that Chrome is the best browser, especially with Google Apps for Education. There are so many cool things that you can do in this browser if you just dig in a bit. In addition to the presentation slides, I also shared a resource page that goes into detail about many of the great things you can do with Chrome. Pin It Now!

Taking time to Create, Collaborate, Communicate and Think Critically

This fall I have had the great opportunity to teach a class at Western Washington University. The class is called Digital Decisions.  The course is for pre-service elementary teachers.  Most of the students are currently in practicums and will be starting their student teaching soon.  The course is designed to help prepare students with the tools and knowledge needed to successfully and effectively use technology for learning in the elementary classroom. Although much of what I am teaching is similar to what I share with teachers in our district, I've had some opportunities to do things a little differently in the university classroom.  Probably the main difference has been time.  My opportunities to work with teachers in the district is always so limited by time constraints that I often resort to the fire hose approach of just trying to share as much as possible during the limited time available crossing my fingers that teachers will somehow find a way to revisit and explore the information shared.  This is not an approach I like and it is not good teaching.  When working with technology, teachers (and students) need time to play and explore.  Especially if tech is to become anything more that a "how to" productivity checklist.  Although I still feel the constraints of time teaching at Western, I do feel like I have a little more time to actually model and teach in a way that I would hope we would work with our students.  I make sure that each session involves an opportunity to create something using both creativity and critical thinking skills.  Students have many opportunities to collaborate and communicate with others in class and also with teachers and experts in the field beyond the classroom walls.  Although, college educators are called "professors",  I try to do as little "professing" as possible.  I want my students doing the talking.  I ask lots of questions and have students work together and share what they are learning instead of me just standing and delivering my knowledge and expertise. The reality of taking time for learning is difficult when the goals of the class are many and the time is limited.  But there is great power in forcing ourselves to do this.

Although I feel like I was able to have success with this with my college students, I am still struggling with how to make time for staff/students to create, communicate, collaborate and think critically when I may only have a one hour window of time to teach a certain group of staff members about instructional technology during a given year.  I try to have structures in place to use a blended model of instruction providing materials, resources and activities that can be done before and after training.  But this approach requires a commitment to extending the learning outside of the training time.  It requires a commitment to continued learning and exploring.  And from me, it requires the ability to follow up with staff and teachers and determine current needs and next steps and the ability to help teachers make those next steps.  Yes, we are all in the business of learning and learning can be hard and time consuming work.

Today is a great day to learn something new. 

Take a look at the online courses I have compiled and created for teachers in our district.  By using the "Just in Time" Flipped model approach, I am hoping to meet the professional development needs of more of our teachers. Pin It Now!

Join the Sharing Revolution

In my job, I have the opportunity to get out into schools and see the amazing learning happening in classrooms across the district.  I don't think that a day goes by that I am not asking a teacher or a student if it is ok if I share with others what I observed or learned from them.  We have so much to share.  This should be a part of what we do.  We have so much to share and we also have lots to learn from the teacher in the room next door, or the school down the road.  In addition to sharing with our fellow teachers, which in itself is so powerful, we should also sharing with our community.  Our community is and should be part of our learning village. Whether we work for the district or not, we as a community all want to know about the great learning happening in our schools.  This week, Andrew Bishop shared his latest "Ask a student" video with our community via Youtube, Facebook and Twitter.  And as a community, we celebrated the thoughtfulness of the students and the creativity in sharing.  With the social media tools we have available to us as teachers, we have the opportunity to not only open the doors to our classrooms so that students can learn beyond the walls, but we can also open our classroom doors for all to see the amazing things happening in our classrooms.  George Couros, a champion in building innovative learning cultures in schools,shares this idea in one of his latest posts.

Two things can happen here.  We commit to share with others and we also commit to learn and celebrate with others.  What a powerful idea! 

Of course, not all of what we see and hear on Social Media about our schools is positive. The best way to change this is to make sure that we are faithfully sharing and celebrating the good stuff and intentionally reflecting on even the "bad stuff". And because George Couros does such a nice job of sharing with others, I will end this blog with another great quote from George. "We need to make the positive so loud that the negative becomes almost impossible to hear." 

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Building Communication and Collaboration Skills with Shared Computers

We are rolling along in the Mount Vernon School district providing more and more access to technology for our students.  This school year alone, we have placed over 800 more devices in classrooms across the district.  As we continue to push forward, with available and planned resources, we have looked at several models.  The trend seems to be toward a One to One or as I like to say One to World model.  As we have researched this model and as personal devices have become more affordable and accessible to our students, we have considered whether our students need devices assigned to them that they have access 24/7 or do we need to have all classrooms equipped with technology so that students have access at school whenever needed.  We have also have implemented models that allow students who do not have access away from school to be able to check out the devices they need to continue their learning at home.  We are researching and building ideas and beginning to build toward that capacity with the funding sources we have available.

Our current reality is that we will continue to distribute devices to classrooms, as funding from our 3 year tech levy permits. This will result in more that 1750 new student devices added to our district on top of the classroom and lab devices currently available to students.  The plan with this levy is to have shared carts for each elementary grade level and secondary content area.  With our current funding, we will not get to one to one.  But have hopes to move closer and possibly even achieve that goal when we run our next tech levy in another 2 years.

As I have worked with teachers on how to best use these shared devices, I have made a few observations.

Although it is sometimes nice to have all students individually working on devices at the same time.  With this model, students can get through tasks quicker and every one can be on the same page.  But often collaboration and communication skills are not a part of this type of use.  This model doesn't always take advantage of the powerful learning students can achieve when working together. And since, for the most part, we are working with shared carts. This means that this type of work becomes an "event" when you can get the cart instead of a ubiquitous tool in the classroom. 

Managing the devices by distributing to all of the classes sharing that cart requires a different plan for using the devices.  The devices become a center in a rotation or they become one of many tools available to  to a group of students working collaboratively.  This model allows for students to work more on communication and collaboration skills.  With this model, students begin to see the devices as tools for learning and less as an event.  It does have some drawbacks such as the distributing, storing and charging devices becomes a bigger challenge as devices are assigned to one cart which may or may not be in a convenient location for everyone in the team to access.  

I see value and challenges in both models and I think that with teachers working together on a schedule, that both of these models can be possible with flexible planning.  I encourage artists in the craft of teaching to make the most of the tools you have.  Remember that the tech is the tool, not the teacher.  Think of how you can best take advantage of the situation.  The necessity to share can lead to great opportunities for small group work, project based learning, collaboration and creativity.  Make the most of this.  Build on the strengths of your current model.


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Time to Sign Up for the Hour of Code

The time is now to get your class signed up to join in on the Hour of Code.  December 7th through 11th.  Each teacher who signs up will receive a $10 gift card.   If every class in the school participates, they could be eligible for a drawing for $10,000 workd of technology.There are many options available for participating.  If your students participated last year, there will be new activities for them this year. There are activities at different skill levels and even opportunities to learn about coding in a fun and hands on way even if you don't have access to student devices in your classroom.

This summer I went to a workshop on coding and computer science put on by Code.orgcode.org.  I think that my biggest take away was the importance of exposure. Although there are attributes to learning coding that make it useful for all students.  (Great problem solving, critical thinking, sequencing, etc.)  Computer Science will not be the field that every student chooses.  But, if we don't provide students the opportunity to learn and explore computer science starting at a young age, we build a generation of students who see coding and computer science as hard, and an unattainable goal.  Students who have the exposure at an early age, see computer science and coding for what it is, a fun and challenging field that they might enjoy and might choose as a career choice one day.

This last year, I had a few opportunities to visit the Google offices in Seattle.  I wish I could provide that opportunity for all of our students. (Except for the part where I got stuck in an elevator for over an hour.)  At the Google offices, you definitely get the impression that computer science is not just for the Big Bang Theory crowd, but that computer science is just down right COOL! I would love for all of our students to have the opportunity to someday work in an environment like that.  Being exposed to these skills, helps build future opportunities.

One thing that I wish I would have seen more of at the Google Campus were women working in the computer science field.  And Google will tell you that they agree.  We need to make sure that we are also exposing our girls to the idea of computer science as a career choice. I actually believe that Mt. Vernon, although maybe off to a late start with the Computer Science opportunities is now making great efforts to insure that our girls are welcomed and encouraged in classes and clubs for computer science.

Besides encouraging you to find a way for your students to participate, I have a challenge to you as teachers.  I challenge you to participate in the Hour of Code as well.  Remember, it is just an hour and you don't have to wait until December 7th to give it a try.  I warn you though, that once you start, it can be hard to stop.  As you "play" with coding consider what learning benefits your students will get from this activity. How can this help them be better mathematicians, communicators, artist and scientists? How can this fit in with what you are currently teaching?  Which of your students might be inspired to learn more?

Learn more and register your class here.  Pin It Now!

Visible Thinking Through App Smashing

I often talk with teachers about the idea that we should balance our student's screen time between consumption and production, going heavy on the production side as that is where students are able to construct knowledge from the material they have "consumed".  Many teachers struggle with the idea of students using the technology for more than just going to a single site and following a prescribed program.  Depending on the site, the prescribed program may be outstanding, but it represents only a little of the amazing possibilities available when we teach our students to use the tech tools as a way to construct new knowledge and show their thinking in visible ways.  I like to encourage teachers to think beyond the boxed programs and help students to begin to develop a whole tool box of useful tools for both constructing knowledge, sharing their understanding and even more amazing, showing their understanding in multiple ways. These tools can provide opportunities for students to ask further questions, show their understanding in a way the makes sense to them, and then celebrate that learning by sharing and collaborating with others.  Just as you wouldn't try to build a house with just one tool, we shouldn't expect our students to build  knowledge in this way.  And most likely, each of us would choose at least slightly different set of tools for performing the same task.  Students should have some choices in tool selection as well.

The idea of App Smashing, encourages teachers and students to start building a menu of appropriate tools and then choosing what they think are the appropriate tools for the learning at hand.  We might use one tool for collecting information, another tool for synthesizing that information and yet another tool for sharing the learning with others.  At first, our tool boxes might be limited and our choices to complete the task may be suggested or very similar to each other.  But as our tool box grows, so do the possibilities. 

So how to we start growing this process with limited time to teach the tools and most likely limited devices? 

One way I have seen teachers solve these issues is by creating task cards, with either an app menu or specific app suggestions for the activity.  If constructed at an appropriate level, even very young students are able to follow the task cards independently.  

Here is an example from 1st Grade Teacher Meghan Zigmond. Students learned and wrote pumpkin facts.   She then created a simple task card using the pumpkin carving app on the ipads.  The task cards included pictures that showed the student what apps to open and step by step what to do. Students saved their pumpkin pictures on the camera roll and then opened up Chatterpix. Students used Chatterpix to record their pumpkin facts.  She then published the videos to YouTube.

  Shared on Meghan Zigmond's YouTube Channel.  Check out all the other cool projects. 

Based on the ideas I have learned about App Smashing and the belief that giving students choice is important, Paula Dagnon and I have built a few App Menus to help you get started doing some App Smashing of your own.  We've tried to limit our list, so that you or your students don't end up with an overwhelming laundry list.  We've also included both iPad and Web Based apps so that you can use the tools appropriate to your classroom. 

What I would LOVE to see happen is that we as teachers begin to build and share task cards for our students using apps and programs we have available in our district.  Let me know if you are interested in doing some collaborative App Smashing.

Resources:
All About App Smashing

App Smashing is the process of using multiple apps to create projects or complete tasks. App Smashing can provide your students with creative and inspired ways to showcase their learning and allow you to assess their understanding and skills.

App Smashing - K-12 Technology

k12technology.weebly.com/app-smashing.html

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